The WordPress coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. development team builds WordPress! Follow this site for general updates, status reports, and the occasional code debate. There’s lots of ways to contribute:
Found a bugbugA bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority.?Create a ticket in the bug tracker.
@audrasjb shared the stats for contributors to the release. There was a total of 552 contributors from 48 countries, 32% of them being new contributors. For more accurate release contributors statistics, please fill in your WordPress profile (if you want).
Highlighted Blogblog(versus network, site) Posts
@davidbaumwald shared the posts of CoreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. Privacy team about the WP Consent APIfeature pluginFeature PluginA plugin that was created with the intention of eventually being proposed for inclusion in WordPress Core. See Features as Plugins. proposal and the Guidelines for Internet Explorer 11 support in WordPress.
Upcoming Releases
@davidbaumwald reminded that 5.5 has been in Alpha phase for a while now.
Components Check-in
@audrasjb announced the release of version 0.4 of Auto-updates pluginPluginA plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party which contains all features initially planned fot the project; as well as Themes updates and email notifications. Design, copy and accessibility reviews and feedback are welcome from plugin authors and WordPress developers.
Open Floor
@howdy_mcgee called for a feedback on these old TracTracAn open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. tickets: #29418, #39447, #46768, #37245, #38074, #37255 and #24142.
@azaozz shared the link of WordPress 5.4 master list in support forums. Please, go through this before posting a topic in the forums.
@ipstenu and @azaozz called for attention on respectively these two tickets #49753 and #4975, related to 5.4.
@howdy_mcgee pointed to #24780 and said he has made a document to track the supression operators in Core codebase.
@jeffpaul asked we should start taking a look at the 5.5 early tickets to review patches and look to get some of those in sooner. Here’s for reference the Trac query for 5.5 tickets.
@jeffpaul also suggested to schedule an early-specific bugbugA bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority. scrub in the next couple of weeks to help move those tickets along. A few people voluntereed to lead these scrubs.
@bph reminded that the WPBlockTalk is happening on April 2, and everyone is welcome to register here.
WordPress 5.4 BetaBetaA pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. 2 was released yesterday, February 18, as scheduled.
5.4 Beta 3 is scheduled to be released on February 25, 2020. (Note to committers and maintainers, the cut off time to get bugs fixed and into WP 5.4 is February 25th, 20 UTC)
5.4 is intended to be released March 31st, 2020.
Agenda
Status report on the About page – content and design
Dev Notesdev noteEach important change in WordPress Core is documented in a developers note, (usually called dev note). Good dev notes generally include a description of the change, the decision that led to this change, and a description of how developers are supposed to work with that change. Dev notes are published on Make/Core blog during the beta phase of WordPress release cycle. Publishing dev notes is particularly important when plugin/theme authors and WordPress developers need to be aware of those changes.In general, all dev notes are compiled into a Field Guide at the beginning of the release candidate phase. status and how to proceed to get them all published in time for RC1 and the Field GuideField guideThe field guide is a type of blogpost published on Make/Core during the release candidate phase of the WordPress release cycle. The field guide generally lists all the dev notes published during the beta cycle. This guide is linked in the about page of the corresponding version of WordPress, in the release post and in the HelpHub version page..
@audrasjb suggested it would be great to schedule one or two bugbugA bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority. scrubs before the next beta so we can puntpuntContributors sometimes use the verb "punt" when talking about a ticket. This means it is being pushed out to a future release. This typically occurs for lower priority tickets near the end of the release cycle that don't "make the cut." In this is colloquial usage of the word, it means to delay or equivocate. (It also describes a play in American football where a team essentially passes up on an opportunity, hoping to put themselves in a better position later to try again.)/help the 134 remaining tickets in the milestone. @francina “seconded” with a call out for anyone who has spare time to help organize a bug scrub (See this post for how to run one). Open tickets for 5.4 can be found here (in order of priority). The Bug Scrub schedule for 5.4 lists scheduled scrubs for anyone to join in.
Status Report on the About Page – Content and Design
@karmatosed stated everything is lining up to start the About page earlier this release. There will also be a push to document this. @melchoyce and @elmastudio are leading the design charge on this with @marktimemedia riding along to observe. @marybaum added they’ve got chunks of the copy written and she promised to share it with major-release-squad.
Dev Notes Status
..and how to proceed to get them all published in time for RC1 and the Field Guide.
@audrasjb reports since the last dev chat, four new dev notes were published:
@audrasjb also reports to date, they have a dev notedev noteEach important change in WordPress Core is documented in a developers note, (usually called dev note). Good dev notes generally include a description of the change, the decision that led to this change, and a description of how developers are supposed to work with that change. Dev notes are published on Make/Core blog during the beta phase of WordPress release cycle. Publishing dev notes is particularly important when plugin/theme authors and WordPress developers need to be aware of those changes.In general, all dev notes are compiled into a Field Guide at the beginning of the release candidate phase. published for about 50% of closed tickets with the `needs-dev-note` keyword in the milestone and 4 drafted dev notes ready to publish. He is very confident they’ll have all dev notes published by the end of the month (during last week before RC1)
@jorgefilipecosta reports he is tracking the progress of the block editor related dev notes and requests that any feedback before the dev notes are published would be great as the content there was not yet reviewed and is just what the original people involved in a PR think the dev note should contain.
@johnbillion asks that if anyone sees changes going into coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. that they think need a dev note, to leave a comment on the ticketticketCreated for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker.. @audrasjb adds “if you think there are some important tickets that don’t have the `needs-dev-note` keyword, please get in touch with me”. @azaozz asks that you ensure the dev notes are really for developers and are concise and to the point and preferably with a code example of changed usage. @jorbin reminds us to remember the guidelines for posts and the need to have a peer review.
@francina thinks having a separate page with guidelines on submitting dev notes would be helpful. @earnjam mentioned @desrosj would have a draft written up on the subject.
@francina announced the highlighted post. There were no comments.
Component Check-ins
News from Components
Components up for adoption (i.e. looking for maintainers): Filesystem APIAPIAn API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways. and Rewrite Rules
Components that need help
Cross component collaboration
News From Components
Administration
@valentinbora reports 1 week after he took up Administration, 40+ tickets have been triaged with 2-3 moved to other components. Per the previous meeting’s discussion regarding the very existence of the Administration component, @valentinbora thinks it’s here to stay.
GutenbergGutenbergThe Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/
@jeffpaulraised the issue of Gutenberg development overlapping existing Core components and how to best communicate with their respective maintainers/teams. @francina proposed a continued discussion about the cooperation between Components and Gutenberg out of the meeting.
Widgets & Menus
@audrasjb noted 3 bug fixes with `commit` keyword and concerns about managing the transition and backward compatibility with tickets referring to current widgets/menus and new tickets referring to full site editing (FSE).
@noisysocks recommends that maintainers of the widgets, customizerCustomizerTool built into WordPress core that hooks into most modern themes. You can use it to preview and modify many of your site’s appearance settings. and editor components get involved and look at the relevant labels in the Gutenberg repository.
Open Floor – Announcement
@pbiron announced that a new version of the WordPress Beta TesterpluginPluginA plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party was released earlier today with a new feature. On the settings screen (`Tools > Beta Testing`), once you’ve already updated to either `Point releaseMinor ReleaseA set of releases or versions having the same minor version number may be collectively referred to as .x , for example version 5.2.x to refer to versions 5.2, 5.2.1, 5.2.3, and all other versions in the 5.2 (five dot two) branch of that software. Minor Releases often make improvements to existing features and functionality. nightlies` or `Bleeding edgebleeding edgeThe latest revision of the software, generally in development and often unstable. Also known as trunk. nightlies`, you’ll see a new option for `Beta/RCrelease candidateOne of the final stages in the version release cycle, this version signals the potential to be a final release to the public. Also see alpha (beta).`. Once you’ve set that as your current stream, you’ll only be updated when the next beta or RC (or official) is released rather than the nightlies.
One advantage of this new feature is that you’ll be able to update to beta or RC packages right in the Dashboard (Dashboard > Update) as soon as the packages are built during the release parties if you’re not comfortable using wp-cliWP-CLIWP-CLI is the Command Line Interface for WordPress, used to do administrative and development tasks in a programmatic way. The project page is http://wp-cli.org/https://make.wordpress.org/cli/. Hopefully, this will increase the pool of testers during the release parties.
As the meeting was over time, the remaining two topics from today’s agenda were not started.
Action Items
These items were discovered within the content as stated action items.
@francina to add the bug scrubs to the meetings page (like she did for 5.3)
@francina to add “creating a separate page with dev note guidelines, adding comments to a ticket” to her desiderata. Check with @desrosj who might have a draft of a page with details about how to write a good dev note.
@audrasjb and @welcher should look at Widgets/Menus issues/PR on Gutenberg
@noisysocks to add a ‘call for volunteers’ to the next core editor chat to implement proactive communications from Gutenberg to those component maintainers to help find ways to work together.
@jeffpaul suggests we call out notice to the new WordPress Beta Tester plugin in the Beta 3 blogblog(versus network, site) post (and future posts as well) so folks looking to help test have a starting place.
@clorith wants to chat about how to move more things into a ReactReactReact is a JavaScript library that makes it easy to reason about, construct, and maintain stateless and stateful user interfaces. https://reactjs.org/. world and how to do it outside of Gutenberg.
@noisysocks to “put something up” on Make/Core to continue the conversation about cooperation between Components and Gutenberg (i.e. Cross Teams Collaboration).
@francina announced that @davidb has posted this bug-scrub schedule, which also lists regular design and editor triages. Remember, you can get serious props by hosting a scrub of your own — and you can pick the tickets to suit your own interests!
She also confirmed the schedule and release squad.
BetaBetaA pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. 1: 11 February 2020 (4 weeks from kickoff)
Release Candidaterelease candidateOne of the final stages in the version release cycle, this version signals the potential to be a final release to the public. Also see alpha (beta). 1: 03 March 2020 (3 weeks from beta 1)
General Release: 31 March 2020 (3 weeks from release candidate 1)
Answering the question from @francina, @karmatosed asked the group (plus you and me, dear reader) to comment on the post with our feedback. Priorities are open, as long as we keep in mind what we can finish by February 11 — Beta 1.
(Ed. note: If this is your first major releasemajor releaseA release, identified by the first two numbers (3.6), which is the focus of a full release cycle and feature development. WordPress uses decimaling count for major release versions, so 2.8, 2.9, 3.0, and 3.1 are sequential and comparable in scope. cycle, and as a reminder for the rest of us, new features and enhancements must be largely complete by the time we release Beta 1. We call this a feature freeze.
Further betas and the release candidates are for bugbugA bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority. fixes and patches. There’s also a string freeze at RC1.)
@karmatosed made one final point, asking if the working group could alternate meeting times to include the whole globe, and devchat attendees readily agreed.
Components Check-in
@ianbelanger asked for help testing and submitting patches for 19 bundled-theme tickets and 39 Twenty Twenty tickets, so at lease some of them can get into 5.4.
@jorgefilipecosta announced the release of Gutenberg 7.3, “featuring a very significant performance enhancementenhancementEnhancements are simple improvements to WordPress, such as the addition of a hook, a new feature, or an improvement to an existing feature..” (I think he means it’s faster. 😜)
He touted the navigation blockBlockBlock is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. as the big feature for 5.4 and pointed us all (you too, dear reader) to this board for tracking the status for that block.
@sergeybiryukov will be the coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. tech focus lead
The whole team should be assembled by the end of the week. There is a fewer roles than in 5.3, because it’s a shorter release. The first BetaBetaA pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. release is in 3 weeks from now.
@davidbaumwald expects to release the bugbugA bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority. scrubs schedule by the end of the week.
@karmatosed added that Core design triages (on Mondays) for a few weeks can also focus on 5.4 to boost things.
@audrasjb noted that depending on the number of accessibilityAccessibilityAccessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) related tickets, the Accessibility Team can organize some extra accessibility focused bug scrubs. He will check the milestone to see if there is a need for more accessibility bug scrubs.
As @azaozz stated, hopefully component maintainers will take bigger and bigger part in “driving” 5.4, and releases in general.
@pbiron asked if there is a specific focus for 5.4. @francina answered that in general, 2020 is going to focus on one big goal: full site editing with GutenbergGutenbergThe Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/. @dingo_d noted that it would need some coordination with the Theme Review Team.
@paragoninitiativeenterprises noted that #49200 needs feedback from anyone interested in WordPress security, or who develops plugins/themes.
@audrasjb is working on two tickets related to Themes and Plugins auto-updates: #49199 and #48850. This is one of the 9 projects for 2019-2020. The design team already provided some helpful feedback. These tickets are now waiting for technical review so they could hopefully land in the next couple of releases.
@marybaum noted her availability for copy review on 5.4 features.
@azaozz reported the Media team will release a feature plugin for lazy loading, so it can be tested well before adding to core. The pluginPluginA plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party should be available in a couple of days.
@francina mentioned that development on 5.4 should have started the day 5.4 was branched, back in October. In fact, many people wait for the kickoff to start working. With Beta release scheduled in 3 weeks, it’s not really the time to add not fully ready features to the scope. However, WordPress 5.5 agenda is already known, so there is no need to rush things.
@azaozz and @francina pointed out that as soon as a release’s code is moved to a branchbranchA directory in Subversion. WordPress uses branches to store the latest development code for each major release (3.9, 4.0, etc.). Branches are then updated with code for any minor releases of that branch. Sometimes, a major version of WordPress and its minor versions are collectively referred to as a "branch", such as "the 4.0 branch"., trunktrunkA directory in Subversion containing the latest development code in preparation for the next major release cycle. If you are running "trunk", then you are on the latest revision. is back in business for the next release.
@xkon noticed that the “Current Release” widgetWidgetA WordPress Widget is a small block that performs a specific function. You can add these widgets in sidebars also known as widget-ready areas on your web page. WordPress widgets were originally created to provide a simple and easy-to-use way of giving design and structure control of the WordPress theme to the user. on Make/Core might be confusing for newcomers as it’s still indicating 5.3 as the current release in progress.
Calls from component maintainers
Media:@azaozz is looking at couple of small enhancements for the uploader changes from 5.3, specifically adding a link in the UIUIUser interface to the original image (if it was scaled), and looking at some of the edge cases when creating image sub-sizes, file size for large PNGs, etc.
Widgets & Menus:@audrasjb will coordinate with @welcher to identify priorities for an eventual specific bug scrub.
Build tools:@johnbillion is going to look at getting several of the Composer related tickets into 5.4 (like using Composer for external libraries and phpunit). @desrosj and @johnbillion to synchronize their work at some point as @desrosj is working on backporting the local Docker environment.
Comments:@imath committed to look at each ticketticketCreated for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. involving comments in 5.4.
Open Floor
Some new contributors asked about how to start with core contribution. Worth noting the next New Contributor Meeting is scheduled for next Wednesday at 20:00 UTC in #coreSlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. channel. This is a great opportunity to ask for help or to learn how to contribute to WordPress Core.
@francina reminded the main feature of 2020 will be full site editing. All component maintainers received a pingPingThe act of sending a very small amount of data to an end point. Ping is used in computer science to illicit a response from a target server to test it’s connection. Ping is also a term used by Slack users to @ someone or send them a direct message (DM). Users might say something along the lines of “Ping me when the meeting starts.” before Christmas to put together a scope for WordPress 5.4. An open call for tickets was also published on Make/CoreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.. While @francina noted there were mostly bugfixes and not so many new features, @audrasjb raised ticketticketCreated for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker.#48850 from the comments of this post. This ticket is related to automatic updates for plugins (with manual opt-in), which is one of the 9 projects for 2019-2020.
@azaozz noted that the media component team plan to continue with image post-processing. It looks like it will need couple of small UIUIUser interface changes/enhancements.
@audrasjb added the accessibilityAccessibilityAccessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) team will probably focus on bugfixes on both GutenbergGutenbergThe Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ and Core for 5.4, and target the next major (5.5) for bigger new features.
Comments: @imath is working on #35214. Feedback welcome.
Core privacy: @xkon said the privacy team won’t have any specific focuses for 5.4, only bugfixing & enhancements on existing parts. Some of them need backward compatibility review, especially #44038 and #44176. Both tickets have a patchpatchA special text file that describes changes to code, by identifying the files and lines which are added, removed, and altered. It may also be referred to as a diff. A patch can be applied to a codebase for testing. and are ready for further iterations if needed.
Media: @azaozz is experimenting with #44427. Seems a very worthwhile enhancementenhancementEnhancements are simple improvements to WordPress, such as the addition of a hook, a new feature, or an improvement to an existing feature. for 5.4.
Open floor
In the agenda comments, @justinahinon pointed out some editing needed in the roadmap, and highlighted reactions of the community concerning handling of big media on WP 5.3. @azaozz noted most comments are about “missing” the original image in some way. The initial plan was to have a link to it in the user interface. It should be added in 5.4. Another enhancement for the UI would/may be to show when an image is missing some of the sub-sizes and have a way to create them. There are plugins that handle this, but may be time to have it in core. There are couple of pre-existing edge-cases that need fixing too. Most notably increase of the file size for indexed PNGs when resized to smaller dimensions.
@timothyblynjacobs shared #47192 as a possible 5.4 feature. It’d bring a pretty often requested feature to Recovery Mode. It would need design and copy input as well as a security review from people familiar with the intricacies of the Users/Capabilities APIAPIAn API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways..
